Winnipeg, MB (August 31, 2011) – True North Sports & Entertainment, in conjunction with Bell Media, are pleased to announce today they have entered into a 10-year agreement awarding the regional television broadcast rights for the Winnipeg Jets to TSN, and the radio broadcast rights for the hockey club to Sports Radio 1290.

As part of the agreement, TSN will broadcast more than 60 regional regular season and pre-season games each season to fans in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and parts of Northwestern Ontario on the new specialty channel “TSN Jets” – a part-time television service dedicated to Jets games and launching September 20.

In addition to the regional broadcasts, TSN will also broadcast five Jets games across Canada as part of the network’s national broadcast agreement with the NHL.

The agreement with Bell Media also includes exclusive radio broadcast rights for Sports Radio 1290 – Winnipeg’s only all-sports station. Sports Radio 1290 will be home to all 82 regular season Jets games along with the Stanley Cup Playoffs and all pre-season games.

“True North Sports & Entertainment and the Winnipeg Jets are ecstatic to have entered into this agreement with Bell Media. It is a landmark agreement for broadcasting and professional hockey in Winnipeg,” said Jim Ludlow, President & CEO, True North Sports & Entertainment. “The 10-year term demonstrates TSN’s long-term commitment to Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Jets. We are also excited about the prospects for the future of Sports Radio 1290 and we are confident they will carry forward what has been a tradition of outstanding radio coverage of hockey here in Winnipeg. The two aspects of Winnipeg Jets broadcast coverage go hand-in-hand and will lay the foundation for a prosperous partnership for the next decade. We are looking forward to watching the community rally around TSN Jets the same way they supported the hockey club and its ticket drive. The next best thing to being at MTS Centre now is subscribing, watching, and cheering on the Jets from your living room.”

“The return of the Winnipeg Jets has been the biggest story in hockey in Canada this year. Like all Canadian hockey fans we are thrilled to see the NHL return to Winnipeg and we are even more delighted to partner with True North Sports & Entertainment to bring game action to Jets fans,” said Phil King, President, CTV Programming and Sports. “Bell Media’s television and radio platforms will work together to cover all aspects of Jets over the next decade. We are looking forward to working closely with all television service providers in the region to ensure as many fans have access to the regional games as possible.”

In addition to producing live game coverage, TSN has confirmed they will complement their broadcasts by producing extensive pre- and post-game shows.

Sports Radio 1290 will surround its Jets broadcasts with more than five hours of pre- and post-game coverage breaking down all aspects of the games and news surrounding the team.

Play by Play Team

TSN and Sports Radio 1290 are pleased to confirm that veteran hockey broadcaster Dennis Beyak will be the primary voice of the Winnipeg Jets calling all regular season games. The Manitoba native will call 56 games for TSN Jets along with 26 games for Sports Radio 1290. Beyak has spent the past 16 years as an NHL broadcaster, most recently working as a play-by-play commentator for the Toronto Maple Leafs on AM 640.

In addition to Beyak, popular former Manitoba Moose broadcaster Brian Munz will call 56 Jets games for Sports Radio 1290. Munz has become a fixture on the Manitoba sports scene for the past five years. Prior to being the voice of Moose, the Regina product worked extensively in sports broadcasting on the Edmonton Oilers radio broadcasts, was the play-by-play voice of the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders and Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s Melfort Mustangs, Nipawin Hawks and Humboldt Broncos.

Colour analyst roles for the TSN Jets broadcasts will be shared between former NHL players Brian Engblom and Mike Johnson. Winnipeg’s Engblom is a Stanley Cup winner and member of Manitoba’s Sports Hall of Fame. Engblom made the move to broadcasting in 1993 and has worked with top broadcasters including ESPN, Versus and Altitude Sports and Entertainment.

Johnson is considered one of Canada’s rising young NHL broadcasters. The veteran of more than 650 NHL games has been working at TSN in a variety of analyst roles for the past three years including the main analyst for TSN’s overage of the IIHF World Championship

Former NHL defenceman Shane Hnidy also joins Sports Radio 1290 as a colour analyst for all Jets games this season. An 11-year NHL veteran, Hnidy was a member of the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins last season.

Sports Radio 1290 will confirm its other hockey analysts and Jets Insiders in the coming weeks.

NEW YORK (August 31, 2011) — The NBC Sports Group today announced a block of new live studio shows for VERSUS airing on weeknights from 6-7 p.m. ET under the banner of NBC SportsTalk, NBC’s successful digital franchise on NBCSports.com that includes ProFootballTalk, HardballTalk, ProBasketballTalk, ProHockeyTalk, CollegeFootballTalk, InsidetheIrish and ProGolfTalk.

In addition to the new 6 p.m. shows, VERSUS, which will be re-branded the NBC Sports Network on January 2, will also launch a sports-business show with CNBC’s Darren Rovell, titled CNBC Sports Biz: Game On, on Friday nights at 7 p.m. ET. VERSUS’ weeknight studio block launches on Thursday, September 8, leading into NBC’s NFL Kickoff coverage, featuring the first NFL game of the season between the New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers.

“NBC SportsTalk is the type of nightly, relevant programming that viewers can expect to see as we continue the re-branding process from VERSUS to the NBC Sports Network,” said Jon Miller, president of programming for NBC Sports and VERSUS. “The live nightly shows also give us the opportunity to tap into our stable of top talent across all of our platforms to provide a unique perspective for sports fans.”

The live block of shows will focus on the sports world’s most relevant topics each night and will include NBC Sports Group talent who will not only report on sports news, but will break down the significance of that news for viewers. Mondays (ProFootballTalk with Mike Florio) and Fridays at 6 p.m. will be devoted to football, while the rest of the shows during the week will focus on the most topical sports stories.

NBC SportsTalk will be hosted by former Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic anchor Russ Thaler. He will be joined by talent from across all NBC Sports Group platforms, including Peter King of Sports Illustrated and Football Night in America and Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk on NBCSports.com for the special NFL-themed show on Friday nights.

CNBC Sports Biz: Game On – Rovell’s sports business show on Friday nights will focus on the $200 billion business of professional sports, including ownership, labor, media, sponsorship, marketing, merchandise, facilities and executives. The 30-minute show will feature segments such as: “Power Player,” where Rovell interviews sports business newsmakers; “The Scoreboard,” in which Rovell and his sideline reporter, Erin Sharoni, review the sports business winners and losers of the week; “Heavy Hitters,” in which Rovell calls up insiders to break down how one aspect of the business works. Rovell’s more than 115,000 Twitter followers will also play an active role in the show.

NBC SportsTalk – The 6 p.m. nightly shows will focus on various topics throughout the week with certain nights and times devoted to a single sport:

MONDAY: Immediately following VERSUS’ newly announced College Football Talk show from 5-6 p.m. ET, the network begins the week with ProFootballTalk with Mike Florio. One of the NFL’s most influential voices, Florio will join Thaler in the studio for the hour to break down all the football news from the weekend. Once the NHL season begins, NBC SportsTalk will air from 6-6:30 p.m. ET, making way for NHL Live, the new half-hour pre-game show which begins at 6:30 p.m. ET.

TUESDAY-THURSDAY: On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, NBC SportsTalk will break down the topics that are dominating the sports world and will enlist talent from all NBC Sports Group platforms to join Thaler, including commentators and reporters from NBC Sports, NBCSports.com, VERSUS, Golf Channel and NBC Sports Group’s 11 regional sports networks. On select Wednesday nights throughout the NHL season, the second half of the show will be dedicated solely to hockey.

FRIDAY: NBC SportsTalk will wrap up the week with in-depth coverage of NFL news and will welcome one of sports’ most knowledgeable and respected NFL insiders, Peter King of Sports Illustrated and “Football Night in America,” to join Florio and Thaler. Additionally, Gregg Rosenthal of Rotoworld and ProFootballTalk on NBCSports.com will contribute a fantasy segment each Friday.

NEW VERSUS ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING THIS FALL (all times ET):

Monday, 5-6 p.m.: College Football Talk hosted by Liam McHugh with Ross Tucker and Roland Williams

NEW YORK — Versus is adding live weeknight studio shows as part of its evolution after the NBC-Comcast merger.

The “NBC SportsTalk” programs will air from 6-7 p.m. on Monday through Friday starting Sept. 8.

“If we’re going to be important to sports fans, we have to be relevant each day,” NBC Sports Group chair Mark Lazarus said.

Monday’s show will be called “ProFootballTalk.” Fridays will also focus on the NFL.

“NBC SportsTalk” will be hosted by former Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic anchor Russ Thaler

More info on the host of the show, Russ Thaler, including that Wednesdays during the season will feature a half-hour devoted to hockey. From Dan Steinberg:

On Wednesday, they took what they believe is a major step in that process, announcing a block of new live programming that will air weeknights from 6-7 under the “NBC SportsTalk” banner. The studio discussion shows will air on the NBC Sports Network (as Versus will be known starting in January), and will incorporate guests from all of the above properties, including Pro FootballTalk’s Mike Florio, who will appear every Monday and Friday.

“The partnership of NBC Sports and Comcast will, I hope, create opportunities for a lot of people within the Comcast SportsNet family to spread their wings a little bit,” Thaler told me this week while he was driving to Connecticut, where the shows will originate. “I think this is just the beginning for NBC Sports Network. I was the first on-air hire from one of the regional networks, but I’m gonna be far from the last. That really excites me; to be in on the ground floor, to get it going and just see where it goes from here.”

The SportsTalk show will be devoted to football on Mondays (when it will be called Pro FootballTalk) and Fridays (when it will include Peter King). It will focus on the news of the day on Tuesdays-Thursdays. On certain Wednesdays during the winter, the final 30 minutes will be dedicated to hockey. It won’t be a highlight show or a collection of video clips; “that’s not what this is about,” said Jon Miller, president of programming for NBC Sports and VERSUS.

NBC announced recently that with the re-vamping of their hockey coverage – which includes more games on different nights and more NBC/VERSUS synergy – that the network will re-tool their pre-game and post-game shows, which were known as Hockey Central from 2006-2011 (fun fact: the show was simply The NHL On VERSUS Post-Game Show before the 2006 playoffs, which feels like a 1940’s television show. You know, like The Texaco Hockey Program).

The new show will be titled NHL Live, a nod to NBC Sports’ long history, as the network’s old NFL pre-game show carried the “Live!” moniker from 1987-1994. It also goes along with a complete studio re-brand for the channel, as the VERSUS college football program is now College Football Live (it premieres this Saturday, in case you’re curious). Overall, it is a cleaner name than Hockey Central and gives VERSUS/NBC Sports Network (I will be so happy in January when I get to stop typing that) a fresh start in a post-merger universe, instead of carrying on with the old brand.Like last year’s TV, it is time to upgrade as well as effectively simplify.

It still, however, brings to mind another program currently on the air: NHL Network’s daily talk show NHL Live, which airs every day from October-June at the NHL Store in New York City. I was curious as to whether or not the NHL Network show would change its’ own title in the wake of this announcement. The answer is no, according to an NHL spokesperson. NHL Live on NHL Network will keep it’s name when it returns in late September/early October.

I can’t imagine this will be ideal for either program, unless they find a way to work together. NHL Network’s show has been airing for a few years on television, and even longer on the radio, though it has gone through a lot of changes since April, when more focus was put on making it a TV show, while it was dropped by XM Home Ice on the radio side. NBC Sports Group’s push will give the VERSUS NHL Live it’s own immediate presence, though you can imagine it being awkward maneuvering through both, especially when trying to write a post for your website, like I just did.

I know a lot of you have speculated on this over the summer, now we have our answer. Bruce Dowbiggin reports:

In fact, Pilling said that, with the addition of a seventh Canadian team in Winnipeg, HNIC is adding a fifth broadcast crew. “We’ll have some announcements coming up about crews for the additional games and replacements for departed staff,” Pilling told Usual Suspects on Tuesday. For purposes of doubleheaders, Winnipeg will be considered for the first half of the bill (a 6 p.m. CT start).

“When we get to later in the season and teams are out of the running, we will adjust which teams get national exposure and which get regional coverage only,” Pilling said. “For now we’re very happy with the distribution of games that we have.”

NEW YORK (August 24, 2011) –The NBC Sports Group will air a combined 28 college football games on NBC and VERSUS this season, featuring #16 Notre Dame and top-ranked teams from the Pac-12, Mountain West and Ivy League conferences. The increased coverage includes a new live studio show out of 30 Rock for all games on both NBC and VERSUS; the first home primetime Notre Dame game in more than 20 years on NBC; new on-air commentators, including College Football Hall of Famer Doug Flutie; a quadruple-header featuring several ranked teams on November 12; and a new one-hour college football show on VERSUS on Monday nights this fall.

Coverage begins on NBC when Notre Dame faces South Florida on Sat., Sept. 3, at 3:30 p.m. ET. VERSUS’ college football season kicks off on Sat., Sept. 10, with a doubleheader featuring Air Force as they host #14 TCU at 3:30 p.m. ET, followed by Utah at #25 USC beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET.

VERSUS, to be re-branded the NBC Sports Network on January 2, will bring the look and feel of NBC Sports production to all its college football coverage and will feature other notable games this season, including #10 Nebraska visiting Wyoming on Sept. 24, Army at Air Force on Nov. 5 and “The Game” between Harvard and Yale on Nov. 19.

“Similar to our efforts with the NHL, golf and horse racing, the upcoming college football season allows us to better serve the viewer by expanding our coverage across all of our platforms,” said Sam Flood, executive producer for NBC Sports and VERSUS. “Whether it’s a Notre Dame, Mountain West, Pac-12 or Ivy League game and regardless of whether it airs on NBC or VERSUS, college football fans can expect coverage consistent with the NBC Sports brand.”

NOTRE DAME – NBC will air seven games this season, including the first Fighting Irish home primetime game in 21 years when they host #25 USC on October 22 at 7:30 p.m. ET. This season’s coverage begins on Sat., Sept. 3, at 3:30 p.m. ET when #16 Notre Dame faces South Florida. The Fighting Irish also host long-time rival #17 Michigan State on Sat., Sept. 17, at 3:30 p.m. ET. NBC will once again team play-by-play commentator Tom Hammond with analyst Mike Mayock and sideline reporter Alex Flanagan. NBC’s Dan Hicks will handle play-by-play for the first Notre Dame game of the season while Hammond is covering the World Track and Field Championships from Daegu, South Korea.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL STUDIO SHOW – NBC will introduce a new live college football studio show this season which provides pre- and post-game coverage as well as halftime reports for every game on both NBC and VERSUS. The show, broadcast from the network’s studio at 30 Rock, will be hosted by Liam McHugh along with 1984 Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie and former NFL tight end and Super Bowl champion Roland Williams. Additionally, during each Notre Dame game on NBC, Peter King of Sports Illustrated and Football Night in America and Mike Florio of ProfootballTalk will join the studio crew at halftime with NFL insider information.

QUADRUPLE-HEADER – On November 12, the NBC Sports Group will air four games across all the college football properties it covers. VERSUS will kick off the day with an Ivy League game featuring Penn at Harvard at 12 p.m. ET, immediately followed by the much-anticipated showdown between 2010 Mountain West champion #14 TCU at #5 Boise State at 3:30 p.m. ET. NBC will then air #16 Notre Dame as they host Maryland in primetime at 7:30 p.m. ET in an off-site home game from FedEx Field in Landover, MD (the second primetime Notre Dame game of the season). VERSUS will end the quadruple-header with live coverage of a Pac-12 game at 10:30 p.m. ET.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL TALK – On Monday nights VERSUS will introduce a new one-hour show titled College Football Talk at 5 p.m. ET. The show, hosted by Liam McHugh with former NFL lineman Ross Tucker as analyst, will feature all the top college football stories and highlights from the weekend with a large portion of the show devoted to Notre Dame Football news. Roland Williams will also be a contributor to the show.

VERSUS ON-AIR TALENT – NBC and VERSUS will have an analyst reporting from the sidelines for all college football games to provide first-person analysis from the field and interact with the play-by-play and color announcers in the booth.

MOUNTAIN WEST: Paul Burmeister will helm VERSUS’ Mountain West Conference coverage and the former University of Iowa quarterback and host for NFL Network will be joined by former NFL quarterback Shaun King as analyst and former NFL defensive end Anthony Herron as sideline analyst.

PAC-12: Ted Robinson and Glenn Parker will lead VERSUS’ Pac-12 Conference coverage as play-by-play announcer and analyst, respectively. They will be joined by former NFL linebacker Akbar Gbaja-Biamila on the field as the sideline analyst for all Pac-12 games.

IVY LEAGUE: Randy Moss, a new member of NBC’s award-winning horse racing team and contributor to NFL Network, will serve as the play-by-play announcer for all VERSUS Ivy League games and will be joined in the booth by Ross Tucker as lead analyst. Carolyn Manno, sports reporter for Comcast SportsNet New England, will serve as in-game reporter.

BAYOU CLASSIC – On November 26, NBC will once again air The State Farm Bayou Classic, the annual college football game between Grambling State University and Southern University on November 26.

NOTRE DAME EXTRA: For the second consecutive season, all of NBC’s Notre Dame games will be streamed live on NBCSports.com. “Notre Dame Extra” will feature a simulcast of the broadcast feed in full HD quality plus one additional online-only bonus camera. The video player will include picture-in-picture capability and full DVR functionality, allowing the user to pause the live video and even review plays in “slo-mo.”

New features for this season include live in-game tweets from sideline reporter Alex Flanagan and a live in-game chat from Inside the Irish blogger Keith Arnold. Additionally, fans can also watch live coverage of the Notre Dame and visiting teams’ bands at halftime, in-game highlights, as well as a live, online-only postgame footage that will include head coach Brian Kelly’s press conference. Click on Notre Dame Central at NBCSports.com to access Notre Dame Extra: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/25889627/

NOTRE DAME CENTRAL APPS: iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users can get complete NBC Sports coverage of the Notre Dame 2011 college football season with the Notre Dame Central apps. Users can get free, live access to every NBC Sports broadcast of Notre Dame football games. Plus, the app includes live scores, news, video highlights and much more. The iPhone and iPad updates for the 2011 season will be available prior to the Sept. 3 season opener against South Florida.

ADDITIONAL ONLINE FEATURES – NBCSports.com’s college football coverage will also feature video highlights and features from all of VERSUS’ Mountain West, Pac-12 and Ivy League games. In addition, NBCSports.com will feature online-only analysis from all of the VERSUS’ college football experts.

VERSUS RE-BRAND – As part of a new strategy to bring all four tiers of its assets (broadcast network, two national cable networks, 11 regional sports networks and digital) into a consistent framework of branding, VERSUS will be re-named the NBC Sports Network. In addition, the NBC Sports Group will implement a redesigned NBC Sports logo. Both changes take effect January 2, 2012.

NBC Sports Group’s College Football Schedule (all times ET, subject to change):